For the Hard Ones

Book excerpt: Para las duras : una fenomenología lesbiana/ For the hard ones : a lesbian phenomenology originally published in 2002, is a collection of poetry existing from and beyond the boundaries of language, sexuality, and genre. Each memory, meditation, analysis, and erotic snapshot--featured side-by-side in both English and Spanish--is overlaid with the sexual character, experimental prose, and levity signature to the work of de la tierra. As a bilingual book, Para las duras : una fenomenología lesbiana/ For the hard ones : a lesbian phenomenology centers, explores, and reimagines queer Latina sexuality, opening up space for multiple interpretations and transformations. This new edition, published as the sixth Sapphic Classic from Sinister Wisdom and A Midsummer Night's Press, features an introduction by scholars Olga García Echeverría and Maylei Blackwell, a foreword by Myriam Gurba, an essay on de la tierra's periodicals by Sara Gregory, and a tribute to de la tierra by her mother, proving a vibrant context for contemporary engagements with de la tierra's powerful and important work.